Customers of various technologies often require assistance in utilizing the technologies or in utilizing products that employ the technologies. A customer may encounter a problem that, if not solved, will result in losses to their business or will create some other adverse effect. Or the customer may desire additional training and/or supplemental information related to the technology. Thus, experts of the technology may often be heavily relied upon to assist in solving the problem or to provide the training and/or supplemental information. The experts' assistance may be needed globally and instantly. Additionally, the experts' assistance should include a systematic and efficient approach. Such assistance is traditionally done through phone conversations, on-site visits, and/or, more recently, email exchanges. Multiple conversations, visits, and/or exchanges may often be necessary, making the assistance a timely and inconvenient process. Moreover, an expert may not be readily available. The customer may not have the ability to timely supply important information that is critical to the problem. Also, the customer may struggle to accurately represent the problem to the expert.
Expert systems are computer programs that are used in various technologies, such as in the medical, financial, and manufacturing fields, to provide multiple types of expert assistance to a customer. An expert system is meant to supplement an expert in a particular technology by mimicking an interaction between the expert and a customer. An expert system further improves access to the experience of the expert and to knowledge related to a technology.
However, current expert systems lack in several areas. For example, expert systems exist for specific mass-produced products but are not available for customized units that are part of dynamic systems in which the components of the system are inter-dependent upon one another. In fact, the use of expert systems by customers and operators of such customized units is not currently employed.